Much work remains for new Chargers coach Mike McCoy, whose team couldn't hold on to a 21-point lead Monday against Houston. DENIS POROY, AP

SAN DIEGO – As the weeks collapsed into days and then hours, Mike McCoy kept remembering, and repeating, a four-word mantra.

"It will get done," he said Friday. "Gary Kubiak called me when I got this job and made sure I knew that. Things keep coming at you that you never dream of. I wrote 10 or 15 things down during practice today. So make a list and eventually you’ll get it done. It will get done."

The apparent problem for McCoy, as the new Chargers coach, was that he had to start getting it done against Kubiak and the Houston Texans, a fully assembled playoff team.

As it turned out, it got three-quarters done.

Up 28-7, the Chargers steadied themselves for a Houston flood and crumbled like stale drywall.

The Texans won, 31-28, and those Chargers who weren’t around for last year’s 24-0 lead that became a 35-24 loss to Denver proved they could honor that tradition.

"Stopping people on those long third downs, those third-and-13s, third-and-18s, that has been our Achilles heel for years," safety Eric Weddle said. "We were in great position and couldn’t get it done. There aren’t any excuses."

The inscription on the coaching tombstone of Norv Turner is "Fourth-and-29." The Ravens converted one of those in the fourth quarter last November, and Turner and general manager A.J. Smith might as well have called Mayflower right then.

Well, the Texans faced a third-and-18 in the third quarter Monday and got a 20-yard pass to Andre Johnson. They cut the lead to 28-14.

And they had a third-and-13 later in the quarter and got a 30-yard completion to rookie DeAndre Hopkins. They oozed to within 28-21.

Then ex-USC linebacker Brian Cushing leapt and twisted for Philip Rivers’ flare pass as if he were dismounting from the pommel horse. It was a sensational interception that Cushing quickly turned into the tying touchdown.

At the end, the Texans had a third-and-4 and found Johnson, isolated on Derrick Cox, for the prescribed 4. That made Randy Bullock’s game-winning field goal much simpler, and now the Chargers take a deep breath – or two – and travel to the Chip Kelly Treadmill on Sunday in Philadelphia.

"I think we showed we can compete with the best teams in the league," said linebacker Donald Butler, one of many Chargers who played frenetically until the batteries died. "But you gotta finish."

"We were in position to close it out," Weddle said. "You couldn’t ask for any better. We just didn’t execute."

But for a long time they did. They were 4 for 4, all touchdowns, in the red zone. They kept Rivers as clean as possible, and at one point Rivers dodged a rusher, saw nothingness ahead, and moseyed for a career-high 18-yard run.

Dwight Freeney looked somewhat young. Rookie D.J. Fluker battled All-Pro J.J. Watt on even terms for a long time. Malcom Floyd made one astonishing catch, and Antonio Gates went into the Wayback Machine for a circa-2007 play, and Ryan Mathews cracked inside to pick up a fourth-and-1.

But the job was too big. Houston had 12 first downs in the fourth quarter, San Diego zero.

The most forlorn figure in the room was nose tackle Cam Thomas, probably because he had to come down from a defensive player’s high. On the season’s first play, Jarret Johnson deflected Matt Schaub’s pass and Thomas was there for the pick. Rivers hit Mathews for a 14-yard score on the next play.

Thomas could laugh about that, but he sat in the locker quietly for a long time as he mulled a Houston field goal that was taken off the board by a penalty, his penalty. Thomas was charged with a personal foul on the Houston snapper, Jon Weeks. That’s a new rule this year and it allowed the Texans to eventually cash a touchdown.

"They said he (Thomas) kneed him in the head," McCoy said.

But Mike Pereira, former NFL head of officials who now works for NFL Network, said via Twitter that it wasn’t blatant enough for a foul.

"It was my mistake, no matter what happened," Thomas said. "I messed up and it hurt us. Do I want to see it again?. No, as far as I’m concerned, it’s over."

Kubiak was Denver’s offensive coordinator when McCoy showed up, just out of Long Beach State, angling for a quarterback’s clipboard. That endeavor was short-circuited when McCoy got under center, and the snap went past his hands and through his legs.

"You can’t play in this league if you can’t take a snap," Kubiak yelled.

"That was good to hear, since I was an undrafted rookie," McCoy said.

What happened the next time he took a snap?

"I wasn’t there that long," McCoy said.

McCoy moved onto the fringe-quarterback carousel and wound up on the Carolina Panthers’ staff, moving up incrementally. One of the scouts there was Tom Telesco. McCoy became Denver’s offensive coordinator and performed the neat trick of drawing up winning stuff for Tim Tebow one year and Peyton Manning the next.

Along the way Kubiak gave McCoy a copy of the quarterbacking practice notes he’d compiled when he was on San Francisco’s staff. They had the ring of authenticity, since Joe Montana and Steve Young were those quarterbacks.

Telesco became the general manager for San Diego when owner Dean Spanos ended the nine-year reign of A.J. Smith. Turner, the head coach for the past seven years, also got the big haircut.

"It was time for a change," said 10-year center Nick Hardwick. "It was time for new life, for everybody to jump on board with something new and be confident and get going."

And not stopping. When asked how palpable the chances are, Hardwick smiled and said, "We work.

"I got that impression in, like, Phrase 2 of our off-season program. You better buckle down, you better get in shape. You stop and maybe get a sip of Gatorade, but otherwise it’s 2 1/2 hours out there on the grass, and it’s a worker’s mentality."

There’s always a little eye-rolling when the new boss shows up, but the Chargers were 24-24 the past three seasons with no playoff appearances. The players weren’t in a position to write their congressmen in protest.

"We’re like horses," Hardwick said, laughing. "We like to run, we like to get pushed."

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